Bruised
by fairyfan777
Summary: Complete! "Laxus and Lucy? They caught a bullet that had been fired at somebody else." Laxus goes berserk and injures Lucy after drinking potion accidentally. She knew he didn't want to hurt her, and he knew she didn't blame him, but that had nothing to do with the pain and strife that followed. A little Lalu darkfic for your enjoyment.
1. Chapter 1

Laxus and Lucy? They caught a bullet that had been fired at somebody else.

It was the end of the world, and it came out of nowhere. Rather than a global or even guild-wide apocalypse, this one was private and shared only by two people who had no plans to share anything at all. The darkness appeared out of nowhere, and it had swallowed them completely.

Lucy opened her eyes and viewed him through vision blurred by a swollen eye. When she made out his form, fear coursed through her so hard she shook hard. "A-Are you back?"

She was in his bed, and Laxus sat on the floor next to the wall, watching her in fear, in question, in utter confusion.

Were there even words for this? He couldn't think of any, so he hung his head and gave her a simple answer. "Yes."

The blonde rolled over, her back to him, and started to sob so hard her entire body contorted with grief.

It was really Juvia's fault, but neither of them knew that. They didn't understand anything that had happened, and really couldn't comprehend the fallout that would follow it.

The water mage bought a potion to awaken Gray's love for her, but the man she bought the potion from was her former guildmaster Jose Porla, in disguise. The potion was sabotaged, and it was supposed to make Gray lash out at her like an animal as a punishment for leaving her former guild for Fairy Tail. Yet, he told her that the potion would make Gray fall madly in love with her.

She poured the potion into a mug of beer Mira was about to serve Gray, and watched in horror as Laxus snatched it off the tray and drank it.

The carnality of a dragon slayer?

Not even close to the carnality of a human.

Laxus had always found Lucy beautiful, and had watched her from afar. He had always liked her, from the first moment he saw her, but he chose to leave her alone because she was so innocent. She was like a flower he admired from afar, unwilling to reach out and pluck it.

The spell had brought him out of his mind and sent him after her in a near demonic craze and he had destroyed that flower.

To her credit, she had known immediately that her enemy wasn't _him_. She tried to call him back from the spell, but he couldn't come back—dragons are stronger than humans, so when the spell pulled the former to a position of control, the humanity he held meant nothing. He couldn't even begin to describe how it felt to keep hurting her while she cried for him to wake up from the spell.

He had absolutely wrecked her body while she fought him, cried, screamed, begged him to stop, begged him to wake up from the spell. Lucy had lost her virginity in an encounter that was entirely non-consensual on everyone's part. Her body was covered in bruises, scrapes, bites, and they weren't the kind of marks lovers left on one another.

Laxus was covered in defensive wounds where she punched and hit and scratched and kicked, and he could remember grievously wounding several of her spirits that tried to interfere, including Loke who had also begged him to fight the spell.

There was so much blood in his bed.

Lucy cried until she fell back asleep, and he washed her off of him in the shower, watching the water run pink as blood on his manhood went down the drain. He stayed in the shower for what felt like a lifetime, trying to wash away the memories, but they wouldn't budge.

When Laxus dressed and came out, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, wrapped in a bloody sheet.

"I'm so sorry," he quietly said.

"I know it wasn't you," she mumbled as she tried to stand and crumpled to the bed. "My body hurts so much. God, how did this happen?! I don't understand!" she cried.

He looked down and said, "I don't know what happened. I don't know anything right now except that we need to get you to a doctor."

"I don't want anyone to see me," she fearfully argued.

"I'm sorry for the shame, but you need to go to a doctor."

Lucy clutched the sheet tighter. "Do I get a choice in the matter? Do I get a choice in anything?!

The words were like a knife to the chest because he had all these memories that screamed in his ear that she hadn't had been forced from start to finish. He was so ashamed, and she was so ashamed, and they were there in this moment that was so full of desperate, frantic pain.

She snapped and stood to her feet, ready to lunge at him, but instead, she took one step forward and fainted into his arms.

Laxus wrapped the sheet around her tightly and took her to Porlyusica just like that, because in reality as himself, he didn't feel comfortable trying to clean her up or dress her as she was naked under the sheet. When he banged on the door, the old woman answered it, mortar and pestle in hand as she prepared herbs.

Porlyusica looked down at Lucy. "What happened?"

"I don't know, but the one who hurt her is me," he admitted.

The old woman started to unwrap Lucy and saw a vicious, deep bite on her breasts. Her head jerked up at him in disbelief because she'd watched him grow up and knew he wasn't like this at all. Then, her confusion eased and she simply shook her head. "Laxus, your eyes are dilated. You've ingested magic potion."

A spark of indignant rage came to life inside of him. _I was drugged..._ he thought.

"She'll be okay?" he asked.

Porlyusica answered, "She's not going to die. Neither one of you is going to be okay, but you already know that." Laxus turned to leave and and she asked, "Where are you going?"

"To talk to Gramps. Something like this can't happen between guildmates and he doesn't know. He'd expel both of us for trying to hide it."

When Laxus walked toward the town, he started thinking very hard about his grandfather, and although he hadn't yet figured out how to reach someone like that telepathically the direct way Makarov could, he had the basics down, and right at the edge of the city, his grandfather met him.

Makarov had never seen his grandson look so crazy in his life. He looked oddly terrified, and he had strange wounds on his face. "Laxus? What on earth..." and then he felt how troubled the young man's spirit was, as if he was trapped in a cocoon of emotional turbulence. "What's wrong? Why are we meeting out here?"

Laxus looked away. "If Natsu smells me, he'll lose his fucking mind."

"What happened, Laxus?" Makarov asked as worry flooded through him.

"Someone drugged me yesterday. While I was under the spell, just...shit, Gramps. I don't hurt women. God. I may not be gentle but I've never in my life done or wanted to do..." he paled.

Makarov shook Laxus. "Snap out of it. Tell me who you hurt, and what happened?"

"It was Lucy. I forced myself on her."

The master's face fell, because it was so terrible it didn't even feel real. His grandson was famous for being a jerk, but with women, he was decent. It wasn't in him to do such a thing. "Where is she?"

"Porlyusica."

"Is she hurt?"

"I almost killed her."

Makarov's face twisted with worry. "Laxus..."

Laxus shrugged off his grandfather's hands. "Don't Gramps. Just don't. I can't deal. I can't look at her and I know she doesn't want to look at me."

"You're leaving?"

"I don't know where I'm going to go or what I'm going to do. I just know I can't look at what I did to her. She was begging me to stop and my body wouldn't."

Makarov knew that realistically, he could talk 'friends' and 'guildmates' and 'family' all damn day, but if Laxus had raped her, he didn't need to be anywhere near Fairy Tail. Not only was it going to freak out Lucy, but Lucy had an entire support system and it was likely the information would get out and cause even more problems.

He knew his grandson was especially correct about Natsu. Makarov wasn't sure how to address that but if Natsu found out and Laxus was around, it would start a war in the guild. While the master didn't mind the petty bickering, Fairy Tail wasn't the place for an internal war. The fact that Laxus understood both those things and the things that related to him and Lucy caused him to come to a quick conclusion that he didn't need to be in Magnolia.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't even know."

A week passed and Lucy went home to her apartment, although nothing in life felt right anymore. She felt mired in conflict within her feelings, torn between wanting to hate the face she'd looked up at and the knowledge that he didn't willfully choose anything that happened that night anymore than she did.

When she got home, she found a note on her bed.

Lucy opened it and unfolded the paper.

 _Lucy,_

 _What can a man in my position possibly say? I'm sorry?_

 _I realize that doesn't fix anything, but that's all I have._

 _Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry – I could stand in front of you and say it a thousand times, it it wouldn't change a fucking thing, will it? I'm not foolish enough to promise you I'll make it up to you somehow, because you can't unhurt a person. I can't undo the damage that was done, or even lessen the scars you'll carry on your body for the rest of your life. Everything that happened really happened, and that's the harsh reality of the future we have to face._

 _You are a beautiful and wonderful woman and a bright light. Don't let that light go out._

 _From now on, if you ever ask me for anything—no matter what it is—I won't deny you._

 _Please forgive my sin against you for both of our sakes._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Laxus_

 **Please Review!**


	2. Chapter 2

A month later, Makarov received a little package in the mail at the guild with a magic seal on it. There was no return address, but a lightning bolt had been scribbled where one should have been written, which said to him, 'This is from Laxus, but fuck if I'm going to tell you where I am.'

He took it to his office, and when he broke the seal and when he finally wrestled the lid off the box, a lacrima the size of a baseball bounced onto and then rolled across his desk. It looked like a giant marble full of lightning, and now that it was free from the box that sealed it, magic pressure pulsed outward constantly.

Laxus had removed the thunder dragon lacrima from his body.

There was a note folded up in the box.

 _Gramps,_

 _I'm taking a break from being a monster._

 _I'll be back for this eventually. Keep it safe for me._

 _Laxus_

Halfway across the country, his grandson woke up in an apartment in Hargeon. He ate some cereal, went for a run, did a quick workout, and then showered and got ready for work.

He had, at the age of twenty-three, came to a terrifying discovery that day:

He really had no idea who he was.

The dragon lacrima was _his_ in that it only enabled him to use the dragon magic, but it came with side effects and it carried risks that no one had ever explained. The first time he lost control, he'd been kicked out of the guild. The second time, he willingly left and decided after careful deliberation that he wanted to take a break. From everything.

He had raped a woman he deeply cared about, and potion or no, the severity of the incident forced him to take drastic actions with himself so he could work toward a point of sanity again—a point where he could go to sleep at night and not remember how Lucy's throat felt in his hands, or how terrified her eyes were when he was inside of her.

When Laxus reached for the door knob, a blue envelope slid through the mail slot on the door and landed on the floor. In the upper-left corner of the envelope, was _her_ name.

"Fuck," he cursed at the idea that the person who found him was—of all people—the main person he was trying to stay away from.

Because whatever was written inside that envelope was almost inevitably going to wreck him, he decided it would be a good idea to wait until after his shift to read it and left it on the kitchen table.

The glamorous job he'd taken to fund his 'hiatus from life?' Waiter.

It really wasn't bad, and it made the day go by fairly quickly. Having been a dragon slayer since the age of seven, he really hadn't had much time to observe people being people.

After work, he was tired, but the letter was waiting on him.

Before he opened it, Laxus took a bottle of vodka out of his freezer and drank from it as he stared down the message.

With a deep breath he tore the envelope open and read the letter.

 _Laxus,_

 _I had Loke find you. I want to say 'I hope you don't mind,' but I know you probably mind a lot. Sorry. All we seem to be is a series of hurtful violations when neither of us has any clear intention to harm the other. You are guild family to me. Always. Please also think of me that way._

 _Someday, we're going to have to stand and face one another._

 _As it turns out, the potion that caused that night to happen was given to Juvia by her old guildmaster. He was trying to hurt her, and you grabbed a drugged beer that was intended for Gray. I know this sounds pretty messed up, but I think it's better that it was us than them. I think something like that would have destroyed both of them._

 _Master expelled Juvia, and I don't really agree with that decision in my heart. She only wanted Gray to love her. Then I think about how the goal of the potion was to force him to love her, and love without a choice...it's not love._

 _Anyway, I'm not really writing to you because I want to be friends and make you feel okay about what happened. It's not okay for now, and I'm honestly really relieved that you left. I had no intention of violating your wish to be left alone right now, but I think I might be pregnant._

When Laxus read those words, he let out a deep groan. "Shit."

He'd been able to smell she was fertile during the incident, so he'd been terrified something like this might happen. The rest of the letter suddenly seemed like mindless runes, and all he could see was her simple declaration:

" _ **...I might be pregnant..."**_

After a few minutes of failing to digest this concept, he forced himself to read the rest of the letter.

 _I don't know why I didn't expect it. It's really the worst thing that could happen, so of course it did. I'm scared to even take this test I've had sitting in the bottom of my pajama drawer for a week. A part of me wonders how long I can pretend everything is okay? I feel like my whole life is pretending. Pretend I'm okay. Pretend I'm not pregnant. Pretend I'm not scared out of my mind because my whole life is out of control._

 _Nothing is okay, and I'm sick and tired of acting like it is. I get into the shower at night and scrub my skin until it bleeds because I can't wash away the memory of your hands prying my thighs apart so you can enter me while I beg you to stop._

 _But neither of us can change any of that. In my rational mind, I know you aren't responsible. Unfortunately, my rational mind has very little to do with where I am in life and sometimes I hate you so much I throw up—or maybe that's just the pregnancy._

 _If I am pregnant, I'm going to do something I've always judged other people for doing. Reality is that I'm barely holding it together, and I can't have a baby right now, like this. I want you to tell me you're okay with that. I felt like it would be wrong to just do it and not tell you._

 _You said you wouldn't deny me anything that I asked. So I'm asking. Be okay with this._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Lucy_

Laxus sat there half the night and just stared at the letter. Then he got drunk and spent the rest of the night on the floor of his bathroom puking until mid-morning.

Lucy was also vomiting early in the morning in her apartment in Magnolia, albeit for entirely different reasons. Even she was amazed at the mechanics of denial. Her breasts were sore, her period was late, she was puking every morning without fail...and yet, she was stuck in the idea that she might be pregnant because as soon as she took that test, she had to face reality.

After the nausea seemed to pass, she brushed her teeth and got in the shower, where she went through her now normal routine of sobbing like a baby while she washed up her body, which was covered in fresh scars. The worst one was a bite mark on one of her shoulders, and she'd had to completely change her wardrobe to keep it hidden.

When she came out of the shower wrapped in a towel, she crossed the living room floor, still sniffling.

The fire dragon slayer sitting on her bed was so frustrated with everyone in the world he was about to explode. A month before, Master had sent him on a mission with Gildarts that kept him out of Magnolia for three weeks. When he got home, Lucy was _different_. While he didn't know what had happened, he could see the telltale signs that something very serious had occurred and the strange part is that no one told him anything.

He would ask if she was okay, and she'd smile and wave it off like it was no big deal that she cried all the time, in secret, or that she carried herself like she was afraid people were looking at her, or that she cowered like somebody with a big secret.

It was when she crossed in front of him without noticing him that she saw the bite mark on her shoulder.

And, because he was tired of Master and Lucy not telling him, he grabbed the towel and he pulled it off of her.

Lucy crossed her arms over her breasts and screamed, and then realized what she wanted to hide from him most wasn't her breasts.

Natsu saw old bruises, cuts, scrapes, and bites.

This was Lucy's dearest friend, her protector, the one who was always in her corner, no matter what. And because she was so tired of pretending, she put her arms down, and she let him see.

His expression was blank for a minute, but instead of the rage she expected, he wrapped the towel back around her wordlessly. "I'm so sorry I didn't protect you."

"It's not your fault. It's actually not really anyone's fault. That makes it harder in a way, I think," she quietly whimpered.

Lucy felt his warm, strong arms wrap around her, and she shattered into a thousand pieces. She didn't even know how long he held her while she wept, but when she ran out of tears, she had crumpled to the floor, but he was still holding her.

She told him everything, from the beginning to the end, but she didn't tell him she thought she was pregnant because she wasn't ready to give up her denial.

Natsu's gut instinct was to hunt down Laxus and turn him inside out, but he wasn't really that stupid and he knew there was no excuse for it. Now that he knew, he understood why Master had sent him away and why everyone was acting the way they were.

When she calmed down, she felt infinitely better, like some part of the enormous burden had lifted.

Lucy got dressed and gave him one more hug. "Thank you."

"I understand why Laxus left now..."

She stood in front of the mirror and tried to fix her hair. "One thing I always wonder is why he came after me that night."

Natsu was puzzled by this question—did people really think _he_ was the oblivious one? "Laxus had a huge crush on you. Since always. He always watches you. I asked him once why he was always looking at you, and he said it was because you are an incredible woman. The he told me to make sure I take good care of you on jobs."

She blinked in shock.

What made this really sad, and would have brought her to tears had she any left, was the fact that she'd had a big crush on Laxus too.

The idea that they liked one another and ended up where they were was really tragic and almost unbearably sad to her, but as she'd learned, an overabundance of feelings changed nothing about her situation. Everything was the way that it was.

A couple of weeks passed, and she maintained her denial carefully. Then she came back one day and her landlord gave her a letter she'd received in the mail.

 _Lucy,_

 _I'm still sorry everything happened, and I still can't change any of it. I'm not upset you contacted me, but you didn't have to. You don't need my permission to do anything if you're pregnant._

 _But, I feel like I should tell you some things, because I've been down this road before, when I was seventeen. The truth is that once a life is there, the only two choices are either to nurture or destroy it. Whatever choice you make, you have to live with. Forever. I chose the later and to be honest, it has been hell._

 _I'll talk to you about it if you want, but you'll have to get the courage to come here and ask. I promised myself after that happened I would never allow it to happen again, but here we are._

 _I think it would probably be really bad to have a baby also, and I don't know how that could possibly work. Both outcomes are really unfavorable. I'm sorry this burden mostly falls on you._

 _I'm okay with whatever you do, just make sure you are too._

 _If you're pregnant, stay home from missions and stay healthy. Focus on getting better. The future will be better and it'll get here eventually._

 _Laxus_

Lucy read the letter five times before she tucked it back in the envelope. There was a banknote for five times her rent, which was an indescribable relief since her injuries left her with no money for the rent that was due in a few days.

She expected him to be an asshole, or that he'd maybe be glad that if there was a baby, that she wasn't going to have it. It was actually the opposite, and even though it was obvious both outcomes were unfavorable, she could tell he didn't want her to get rid of it.

The blonde stood and retrieved the test from her drawer, and went into the bathroom. She tore open the test, read the instructions, and followed them accordingly.

The plus sign was expected and not even really a disappointment. Lucy had known for weeks.

Maybe she could just pretend nothing was wrong for a little longer?

 _ **Please Review!**_


	3. Chapter 3

Time passed.

Laxus waited for an envelope to come in the mail telling him either than she wasn't pregnant or that it was over, but it didn't come. And so he waited, and he wondered, and then he worried. But he wouldn't infringe on her privacy and contact anyone else, and he wouldn't contact her unless she asked. A violation had taken place, and he operated out of respect for the crime.

Lucy was a victim regardless of his intentions.

One night he was coming home from work at midnight and she was sitting on a bench outside of his apartment.

His heart started to pound, and a thousand little flashes in his memory brought back all that had happened.

"I-Is that you?" she asked the almost unrecognizable man before her.

Laxus took off his thin, rectangular glasses so she could see his face. "I took the dragon lacrima out of my body."

Lucy looked him over from head to toe. The most noticeable difference is that his bulging musculature was completely gone. It was easy to tell he was in good shape, but by no means did he look like a monster anymore. The scar on his eye was gone, and his face had softened to be more like an ordinary person's.

It seemed like an inappropriate time, and an inappropriate thought, but for some reason her expression softened a little. He looked so human, and she wasn't afraid of him as much as she was of her circumstance. "Hey, Laxus."

"Lucy."

She scooted to the end of the bench. "Come sit with me for a minute, okay?"

Her heart pounded so hard when he sat beside her, but she had to face him. He was equally scared to sit there beside the woman he'd so grievously harmed.

"I'm three months pregnant now. No one in the guild knows. I'm really scared."

Laxus leaned forward and gripped the edge of the bench. He didn't want her to be afraid, but he wasn't in a position to comfort her. "What are you going to do?"

"I want an abortion, but you said you'd tell me about that if I came here and asked. So here I am," she quietly said, voice cracking as she threatened to break down into tears. "I want to listen to you before I do this."

He looked around and asked, "Would it be...would it bother you to go up to my apartment? It's a long story, and it's already late, and I honestly need to get a little fucked up before I can talk about it."

Lucy was actually a little terrified of this, but his points were valid, so they went up to his one bedroom apartment and she sat on the sofa. He came back with a bottle in hand, and for a long time, they sat there in silence while he drank enough Cana would have been proud.

Laxus put the bottle down after a while and crossed his arms. "I was seventeen. I was messing around with this girl who was my age. Her dad was the priest at Kardia Cathedral. I would sneak in through her window and we'd have sex. It was stupid. It was so stupid. She just wanted to get back at her dad, and I was just young and stupid and careless. She got pregnant, and we didn't really talk much about it. I mean, we were kids, what the fuck were we going to do with a baby?

"We were scared to do anything for a long time. I think she was three months along too. I had moved into my house not long before, so I invited her over, and I bought this potion. The person who sold it to me told me if she drank it, she'd have a miscarriage and it would be over. So she drank it, and she started having cramps. We put towels down in the bed, and she curled up on them so the blood wouldn't get on the bed. And I started feeling like it a terrible mistake, but it was too late, so I didn't say anything. She just laid there and cried like a baby."

Laxus stopped and took another drink while Lucy digested what he'd just said. "That sounds really rough," she whispered.

He let out a bitter laugh. "The bad part of this story hasn't even started yet."

"It gets worse?"

The man answered, "I said 'hell' didn't I? Anyway, after a while, she suddenly started screaming hysterically. Nobody fucking told us there was going to be a _body_. She dropped it in my hand, and I just...I don't even know. Worst moment of my life and I can't even describe what it felt like. He was maybe four inches long? Tiny. But he had a head and arms and legs and fingers and toes and he was a he. It was the most broken fucking moment of my life. She screaming, and our little dead son was in my hand."

Laxus was clearly despondent about even remembering these things. Lucy wasn't sure if she'd ever seen any person ever look so disarmed or vulnerable, and God, this was Laxus. He was a man of few words, fewer regrets, and nerves of steel. But under all that, he was carrying a scar so big and so ugly.

They were both quiet for a long time, but Lucy finally asked, "It's none of my business, but what happened to him?"

"I buried him in the woods. There's a little grave."

Lucy watched him shift to look through his pockets. In his left pocket, he had an inhaler, and he took a couple of puffs before reaching for his booze. "What ever happened to her?"

Something like blinding rage flashed in his eyes for a split second. "She married this rich asshole and had a couple of kids. She refers to the oldest as her firstborn son. That makes me angry for some reason. She has never asked where the grave is. I think that must be how it goes. So people are fine, and others..."

But he took a deep breath and straightened himself. "Maybe you would be fine too. And. if you want to do this, then do it. A terrible thing happened. I don't want you to suffer anymore. I'll help you if you need me to. I know what to do this time."

Lucy asked, "How old would your son be?"

"Thirteen. Romeo was born on the day of the baby's due date. That will creep me the fuck out forever. I can't stand to look at that kid. Everything he does reminds me of all the experiences my kid would be having. He never got to walk or talk or go on an adventure or even breathe. That's a fucking heavy burden to carry around _forever_ , Lucy."

If he'd been anyone else in the world, she would have hugged him forever and ever. She'd seen Laxus be nasty to Romeo probably a dozen times, and she always thought he was a big jerk. He was really just pushing him away because he couldn't stand himself.

She was grateful to him, because she was sure he'd never spoken about this to anyone. There were a lot of things she hadn't considered, and it became an unacceptable course of action as soon as she realized how messed up he was. Yet, he was willing to go through all that again for her sake. It seemed both very unselfish and very stupid to her.

Laxus went back to his booze, feeling emotionally raw and shaken from having talked about these events for the first time.

Lucy's shaking hand slowly moved across the sofa and she put it on top of his and squeezed.

He gasped at the contact, but he squeezed her hand back and looked down at her. Lucy was comforting him, and even if it was just this tiny act, he knew it took more guts than he'd ever had in his life.

She swallowed and in a shaky voice said, "I don't know if I could do that to myself, but I won't do it to you. I refuse. This situation is tragic and I hate it, but I'm not scared. I'm strong. I can be strong for you right now, and you can be strong for me too. Let's be okay."

He squeezed her hand again, but he didn't say anything.

Lucy didn't even try to hide her tears at that point. "Let's have the baby and let another couple adopt it. Think about it. There are people who love each other they have a life together, but maybe they can't have a kid. They've love each other and the baby and he or she will get to have a good life. The baby won't ever know it happened like this. We'll be okay, and the baby will be okay, and some family somewhere will be really happy."

"Okay," he whispered.

As soon as they arrived at this decision to have the baby but not raise it, there was a sense of relief that washed over both and even though Lucy knew some of her guildmates would find this decision cowardly or wrong— _"how could you give up your own baby?"_ —she was confident that it was the right decision. She shared her feelings on this with him, and he listened intently.

From there, it was pragmatics. How does one have a baby and keep it a secret from Fairy Tail?

Laxus let go of her hand and crossed his arms. "With everything that happened, I really don't know how you feel about me or anything that concerns me. But I know you're okay right now sitting next to me so I feel like it's okay for me to suggest you we stay together. You don't want anyone to know, but you really shouldn't be by yourself either."

"Live with you..."

Lucy really hadn't thought this far yet, but he made valid points. She actually wasn't losing her mind being there next to him, although she was sure she would if he touched her.

She was _feelings_. He was _action_.

He suggested, "We could move into the two bedroom on the floor above us. It wouldn't be anything funny or whatever... It's only for six and a half more months, right? I swear I won't hurt you."

"I don't really have a way to pay rent without going on jobs, so I guess I could find a job," she thought out loud.

Laxus shook his head. "I fucking hate this whole situation and how it unfolded, but you're pregnant with my kid so let me do what a man is supposed to do for once and take care of you. All you have to do right now is be okay. Have a healthy baby, and then we'll move on from all this."

 _ **Please Review!**_

Special thanks to joanimelover, Tiernank, and Grimnack for reviewing!


	4. Chapter 4

After their talk, it was two in the morning, and Laxus told her she could sleep in his room.

When Lucy made the trip, her intent was to hit Hargeon, talk with him during the day, and go straight home. The first delay came from the fact that he was at work from early in the morning until midnight, and then the conversation had been more involved than she intended. Nothing that had happened was according to the plan she had, but somehow, she had some tiny sliver of peace.

The giant question mark she'd carried in her heart since she first felt the weakness and nausea had dissolved and she became aware of extreme exhaustion that had previously been camouflaged by anxiety.

"D-Do you mind if I wear something of yours to sleep? I didn't plan on staying. I didn't plan...any of this."

Laxus shook his head as she stood in the doorway. "There are shorts in the third drawer on the left in the dresser. There's a washer and dryer at the end of the hall if you want to wash your clothes tomorrow. I'll leave some money on so you can get some new ones."

"I was going to go home and get my clothes..."

"Umm...how long will you be able to wear them?" he asked as politely as possible.

The blonde sighed. "Good point."

"I'll probably be at work when you wake up. I'll be back late."

"Okay."

Lucy went into his room, closed the door, and then locked it before she let out a long sigh.

She wasn't sure if she'd ever been so tired or so relieved in her life and as she peeled off her clothes, and as she opened his drawers, she wondered what it was like for him. There was a part of her that had wanted him to suffer just because she had, but she could see that the events of that night had shaken him to the utmost core of himself.

The pride, the animalistic sneer, the arrogant consternation...it was all gone, and all that was left was Laxus. She asked, and he had revealed the most vulnerable, human side of himself to her. At one point, he'd seemed ready to break down and cry over a mistake he'd made so many years ago. Lucy had no doubts he probably had broken down about it before—probably at some tiny unknown grave in the forest.

They were human, and they were bruised.

Just outside, Laxus was about to knock and ask her if she needed anything when he heard her voice.

Lucy sat on the edge of the bed and put her hands on the little swell of her stomach. "I'm sorry I haven't said hello yet. I was scared. I don't know how you feel in there, or if you can feel, or really anything...I've never done this before. I don't really feel like a mom. I guess I'm not. I wish things were different, but they're not. So I'm just going to hold you for a little while, if that's okay with you."

Laxus felt his chest tighten and he knew none of it was fair. He would have done anything in the world to change the situation she was in. Unplanned pregnancy was a _risk_ , and it was one people knowingly chose. Lucy had never taken the risk, never traded thrill for danger. She received none of the thrill and all of the consequences.

He left her alone, and went to sleep.

The blonde fell into a deep sleep for the first time in what felt like months. She woke up a couple of times to use the restroom, but other than that, she slept in his bed like she hadn't been able to rest in months.

In fact, she slept through the whole day and into the night, when he finally knocked on the door.

"Hmmm..." she groaned.

"Are you all right? I think you've been asleep for an entire day," he asked.

Lucy sat up and saw it was dark again. "I'm fine. I was just tired."

"I brought you something to eat if you're hungry."

The blonde came out in one of his tank tops and a pair of knit shorts. "Let me shower right quick and...put on more of your clothes? You have an extra toothbrush?"

Laxus answered, "Look in the cabinet."

"I'm really a mess," she mumbled.

She took a shower and put more of his clothes on before returning to the main area of the apartment. "I slept a whole day..."

"It's fine," he answered in monotone although his eyes lingered on her belly and the way his tank hugged the curve. "To be honest, I hadn't slept right in months either. I'm relieved."

The blonde looked down. "It was getting a little hard to hide."

Lucy felt like she should have asked if he wanted to see or touch the bump, but she wasn't in a place where she felt like showing her any of her bare skin or having him touch her. He gestured to a couple of takeout containers on the table, one of which contained grilled chicken kabobs, rice, and broccoli.

"Where on earth did you get this?"

Laxus shrugged. "I work at a restaurant. I was a waiter at first, but now I'm one of the managers. But anyway, I'll leave you alone."

He went out onto the little balcony with a bottle of hard booze and Lucy started to suspect he might have an issue. While she ate, she kept looking out at him sitting there in a chair by himself, bottle in one hand, cigarette in the other. He'd occasionally use the inhaler, and some part of her wanted to go outside and stop destroying himself.

But she didn't.

They weren't there to lick each other's wounds. They were there in the same space because they'd made a commitment to bring a child into the world together, yet out of lingering pain and resentment, she didn't feel like helping him. Lucy wanted to say she was mature enough to be over it, but she wasn't.

When she finished eating the main meal, she opened the other container on the table. There were four huge strawberry and cream crepes drizzled in chocolate with strawberries lining the container.

And she sat there and started crying out of complete confusion—not over the crepes, but what they might mean.

The blonde wiped her tears with the back of her hand and went out onto the little balcony, where he looked up at her, cigarette hanging from his mouth. He extinguished it on the arm of the chair and looked up at her expectantly.

"Why the strawberry crepes?" she pointedly asked.

Laxus was confused, because she seemed angry about crepes. "I know you like them. Strawberries, I mean."

Lucy frowned and leaned against the rail. "It's true then."

"What."

She looked down at him and said, "Natsu told me that you had a thing for me. That you'd always watch me."

He looked away, and then raised the bottle to his mouth.

Laxus was mid-swallow when she snatched the vodka out of his hand and threw it much harder than he suspected she should have been able to. His blue eyes followed it as it exploded into broken glass on the sidewalk across the street. He felt her hand impact his cheek with enough force he almost fell from the chair.

He put a hand on his face, but he didn't react. If she wanted to hit him, he didn't mind. After all that had been done, he'd willingly oblige her every whim. He just looked away because he didn't want to see her face. Was she angry? Was she hurt?

"Look at me," she commanded.

When he looked up, he knew.

Lucy was concerned. "Laxus, when was the last time you were sober?"

"Probably the last time we saw each other," he admitted.

Righteous indignation flashed in her eyes. "Don't you _dare_ drink yourself to death over this. My dad had a problem after my mom died, so I know. Your eyes are glassy and your skin is a weird color because you drink so much you're sick."

He knew then that she was stronger than he would ever be.

"It's true. From the very first time I saw you. But what difference does that make now? I know you like strawberries...but you're pregnant and I'm an alcoholic."

Lucy put her hands on her hips. "This isn't you. If you want to take a break from magic or whatever, fine. But you're Laxus Dreyar. You're strong. I've only been here for one day and I'm already sick of it. Wake up and realize that it's 'tomorrow' already, will you?"

"Is this tomorrow everything you wanted it to be?"

The blonde shook her head. "I had a crush on you too, you know. Always. I used to lay on my bed at night and have stupid little girl fantasies about you. I think because you're powerful and sometimes, secretly, I feel powerless. I would imagine that one day you'd notice me, and that someday you'd kiss me, and sometimes...I'd wonder what it would be like. I'd have crazy things in my mind like what if we got married someday and had a baby? This situation is sad and its sick, but I don't have to be sad and sure as hell don't have to be sick."

He envied her, because she could see out of the twisted, dark labyrinth with it's turns and cloudy, jagged path. She could see the light, and up until that moment, he wasn't sure if it existed. "Out of all that..."

Laxus felt her grip his wrist and he looked up at her in question, because she was touching him, a strange, awkward, and upsetting reminder of the calamity of their night together.

Lucy said, "Those things happened and they're over. Can't you see now?"

"See what?"

She pressed his hand against the bulge under his tank top. "There _was_ pain. There _is_ life. Right now. I've decided for myself—starting right now—that I'm not going to cry so much about what happened to my body in the past that I can't experience the miracle that's happening inside of me. Even if...even if we're not really going to be parents, it's still incredible."

Lucy knew she'd struck a nerve when his expression softened. His hand lingered on her for a minute, and then he looked up at her. "Lucy?"

"What?"

"I'll quit drinking, okay? Is there anything else?"

She nodded. "Can we talk about the cigarettes and the inhaler?"

Laxus let out a long sigh. "I was asthmatic from birth. The dragon lungs put it into remission."

"And you think chain smoking will help?"

She threw the cigarettes off the balcony and he said, "Self-destructive people are generally aware that they're destroying themselves, you know."

XXX

For the next two days, they avoided one another like the plague. He went to work early, she was asleep by the time he got home. But in the middle of the night on the third night, she awoke to a familiar feeling of nausea and ran to the bathroom, where he was sitting on the floor.

Laxus was literally drenched in sweat, and shaking, and dark circles marred his face as he sat there in a pair of running pants.

She couldn't help it, and she practically tripped over him on her way to throw up.

He held her hair as she disentangled her legs from his as she threw up.

Lucy flushed the toilet and panted, "What's wrong with you? Are you pregnant too?"

Laxus shook his head. "Delirium tremens."

The blonde had to think for a minute, because she knew she'd heard those words before. "Your body is detoxing..." She'd read this in a book about what happens to people who quit drinking after _severe_ alcohol abuse. Her father had been terrified to quit because of the so-called 'DTs.' Seeing Laxus sit there and shake almost uncontrollably and then dry heave for fifteen minutes was enough to show such fears were justified.

She honestly felt better after throwing up, but instead of going to bed, she just stayed there. "It'll stop if you use your lacrima, won't it?"

"I don't need magic to not be a lousy fucking drunk," he hissed.

DTs caused hallucinations, and Lucy saw him cover his eyes and close his eyes tightly in an effort to drown out whatever was going on in his mind.

He was guild family, if nothing else, so she decided not to leave him.

For three days, he was sick. At the end, he was so tired that he fell face-first on the sofa covered in sweat.

But when he woke up, and he was sober for the first time in three months, he noticed the sun rising. It was bright, and beautiful, and seemed to scream at him that the future still held infinite promise and that the night was over because that's what happened to dark moments. The light always came.

Laxus stood on the balcony watching it for a minute. He heard her behind him, and he wasn't afraid of her approach for the first time since that night. "After the baby is born, I'm going to go home, if that's okay with you."

"You should. You belong at Fairy Tail. It's honestly ridiculous, Laxus, for you to be working in a restaurant overseeing crepes. Or to be an asthmatic, or an alcoholic, or anything other than you. And I guess I stopped being me too, but we have lives waiting on us. Futures. We have battles and jobs and adventures to experience," she said.

Somewhere during all that had happened, he'd had the most marvelous epiphany.

The reason that he had a problem controlling his inner dragon with the lacrima was that he was weak when it came to humanity. The other dragon slayers had important close relationships and other bonds, but Laxus kept everyone at arms' length. So his humanity didn't have the power to keep him grounded the way that the others could.

Even though it was a terrible situation they were in, he was discovering his strength as a human man. And she was in full bloom somehow, even though she really had it worse than he did. Lucy was an emotionally ferocious and indescribably courageous girl who took her care for him as guild family to such an extreme that she had never left his side despite all that had happened.

They tasted hope and it was like a rain that started to wash the dingy residue from their spirits.

"Is it just me or does this sunrise seem brighter than normal?" she asked.

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	5. Chapter 5

Living with Laxus for the first month as actually very lonely, because he worked a lot and he avoided her. Lucy really didn't complain about it because they weren't really in a relationship, but when it became somewhat unbearable, she started trying to talk to him.

Lucy learned that Laxus was actually kind of cool.

They started going for walks together in the mornings, as they both became a little more out of shape. He spent his days in a restaurant and she was pregnant, and that was really okay. They laughed about it and vowed to address it as soon as the baby was born.

In her fourth month, they started talking to different parents who wanted to adopt a baby, and even though she'd liked a couple, Laxus hated all of them. He was very observant, so he noticed things like how the first couple clearly didn't get along, and how the second couple featured a dad who had scars on his hands like he liked to hit, and how the third potential mom seemed to have some serious personality issues.

Then came the Harpers.

They were the first couple to score a second interview, which took place at their house during the sixth month of the pregnancy.

Laxus and Lucy came to their picturesque two-story brick house with its adorable little white picket fence. There was a swing hanging from a tree in the front yard, but it clearly hadn't been used since their son had died.

Michael Harper was a local pediatrician and his wife Ann mostly did volunteer work. They were morally upstanding people, and Laxus and Lucy actively looked for anything that might suggest they weren't right. Laxus couldn't see any hint of alcohol or unrest in the house, and Lucy found the warmth so soothing and inviting.

It was almost Christmas and there was a big tree with lights and ornaments in the living room where they'd sat for tea.

Laxus and Lucy used fake names for this because it would be dangerous for anyone to know who the baby really belonged to. He used his middle name, Renee, and she used her mother's name, Layla.

"We are really grateful that you're considering us," the doctor graciously said.

Lucy smiled. "You guys seem really wonderful. Hargeon is a really great city and there are a lot of really good people here."

Ann asked, "Can we ask you a question? Why aren't you two going to raise the baby? You live together, you get along, and you both genuinely seem to care about the baby."

On the spot, Lucy couldn't make up a lie that really made any sense.

Laxus answered, "We're not in a relationship and we are only staying together until the baby is born. To be honest, when we were together, it was something that shouldn't have happened. We have separate lives. But we want to make sure that the baby is able to have good parents and a good life."

It was the truth—the painful, awful truth.

The woman nodded in understanding. "I see. I'm glad that you are willing to do what you can. You two seem like good kids."

Lucy looked around, at a picture of a little boy. "May I ask what happened to your son?"

The doctor explained, "He was killed the day after his tenth birthday during the Alvarez Empire invasion. He died here in Hargeon, near the port. He was killed by a dark wizard named Wahl. A piece of shrapnel went through his skull. It happened just before a wizard from Fairy Tail named Laxus came. If he'd gotten there just five minutes sooner..."

Lucy felt Laxus go stiff next to her and reached for his hand. This was their lifeline; they didn't touch in any other way, shape, or form. Once, she'd put his hand on her stomach, but other than that, they lived without any form of human touch besides this.

She said, "I can imagine that wizard did the best he could to protect the people of Hargeon."

The deceased boy's mother bowed her head. "He saved our city. Since then, this house has been so quiet. We weren't able to have another baby."

The house was full of love, something neither Lucy nor Laxus had ever really known, and as they spoke with the couple, they came individually to a very important realization: this couple could offer their child a better life than they could. Maybe they could have made it work, and during the process, they'd each struggled with the thought, but these were parents who had a home and a marriage and whole stable life to offer a child.

When they left the house, they walked home in silence, and didn't talk much in the apartment until they'd both gotten ready for bed.

Laxus spoke first. "I think they'd take really good care of the baby."

"Me too. It made me sad. They loved their son so much. Their house is empty. It feels like a little one is supposed to be running around in there," she answered.

His expression eased. "You sensed that too?"

Lucy rubbed her swelling belly. "It would be a really good place for the baby. I'm okay with it."

They stayed up and they talked about it, and then they filled out the paperwork to return it to the adoption agency. The more they talked it out, the more they realized it wasn't really selfish at all. As a couple that wasn't a couple and had plans to split and continue their lives separately, they simply couldn't offer the baby what the Harpers could.

Individually, they had struggled with the idea that they should try to possible co-parent the baby, but it really just didn't make sense. They had a child but no family, and there was a wonderful family with no child. By allowing them to adopt the baby, their lives would be filled with joy, the baby would be raised in a loving, stable family, and she and Laxus would be able to return to their lives and careers.

When Laxus took the paperwork to the adoption agency, he felt a mix of relief and grief. There was a part of him that really wanted to raise the baby, and he knew she felt it too, but there were a lot of other things going on, and when he met this other family, they reminded him of everything they didn't have to offer the baby.

The idea that his own baby would be better off with others was, to his spirit, a crushing blow.

He knew in a few months that he'd reclaim his lacrima and with it, a place among the strongest wizards. People would remark on how powerful he was, and he would know forever that no matter how much power he had, he couldn't keep his little unborn child without being selfish.

A week later, he took several days off from work and had a vasectomy, just to make sure he'd never, ever have to face this situation again.

Lucy came home from visiting their child's future family and found him sitting on the sofa with an ice pack on his crotch. "Laxus? Somebody at work not like the food?"

"I had a little procedure," he said.

"Are you sick?"

Laxus shook his head. "I just don't want to go through this again."

Lucy's eyes widened. "Wh-What did you do?"

"Vasectomy."

The blonde's face fell. "Laxus, you'll never be able to have a kid of your own."

He shrugged. "I didn't really want to be a father to start with, but I made these two babies. I don't want that to happen again, so it won't."

Lucy hung her head because she knew it was harder on him. It hurt her, but Laxus was going through something else entirely, and she didn't really understand. Not even he understood, but it was like a part of him was being torn away. She'd asked him numerous times if they should try to raise the baby, and his resolve was focused on doing 'what was best for the baby' with very little regard to what it was doing to him.

Sadly enough, that way of thinking would have made him an amazing father. Even if not with her, she would have loved to see him as a father, helping his son or daughter learn how to walk and talk and live.

XXX

Another two months passed, and the paperwork was finalized except for the final forms, which she and Laxus would ink with their fake names after the baby was born. Laxus had recovered quickly from his procedure and gone back to working, and as they grew nearer and nearer to the baby's due date, Lucy started to look forward to everything being over.

They were on one of their normal morning walks when a man stumbled and fell in an alley, crying out for help. Laxus kept walking, because a lousy drunk in an alley honestly wasn't his problem, but Lucy ran to help him, even when he told her not to.

In an instant, they were surrounded by a band of thieves.

Loke came through his gate, knowing she couldn't summon properly while pregnant and Laxus wasn't able to use dragon slayer magic. He thoroughly underestimated what Laxus would do when he heard the man's fist collide at high velocity.

Magic or no, Laxus was mean fucker, and he'd get up and keep fighting no matter what.

One of the bandits yanked Lucy back and held a knife to her stomach.

Loke and Laxus both froze.

"Oh? Who's the daddy?"

Laxus hissed, "If you hurt her, I swear to God I will fucking destroy you."

He pressed the knife in, and blood dripped down the knife.

Lucy reached for the hand, and with a groan of exertion, threw him over her shoulder to the ground.

The two men positioned themselves between Lucy and the bandits and went to their work. Loke's magic flashed and she watched the damage a pissed off man could do. It was reminiscent of a dragon slayer's damage, but his asthma kicked into high gear in an instant and when he faltered, he felt the cool blade of a knife slip between his ribs.

"Laxus!" she shrieked as she ran to his side.

Loke finished the last bandit off just as she dove at his side. "Oh no...Laxus..."

Blood gushed everywhere, and the blood tricking from the corner of his mouth said there had been catastrophic damage inside of his body. Without magic, Laxus didn't have much hope.

Lucy looked up. "I know you hate Laxus. But I need you to put that aside. Remember I'm your master right now. Take Laxus to the hospital. And then go to Magnolia and get his lacrima from Master. Please!"

Loke, who had done all the could to stop Laxus on that night, almost despised her for giving him this command, but he was obedient. Once he dumped Laxus unceremoniously on the steps of the hospital, he hurried to Magnolia, knowing the staff would be taking care of him by the time Lucy arrived.

It took him four hours to get to Magnolia, and when he arrived, everyone was surprised to see him come through the guild doors alone, especially since they hadn't seen Lucy in months. In fact, they hadn't seen her since she left to 'go train.'

He approached Makarov and said, "Master, Lucy sent me on an urgent matter. I need to speak to you privately."

Makarov nodded and showed Loke to his office. "Is she all right?"

"Lucy is fine. Laxus is the one in trouble."

The guildmaster seemed confused at first. "Don't tell me she knows where he is! I don't understand, Loke. She went to train, and he ran off. Are...are they together?"

Loke pushed his glasses up. "As my former master, I want to tell you everything, but I'm loyal to my master, Lucy. I believe they'll tell you everything eventually. For now, I can say that Laxus has been severely injured and Lucy sent me to retrieve his lacrima."

"Injured?"

"He was stabbed in the chest."

Makarov flinched. "That idiot! He never should have taken the lacrima out. Because he felt guilty..."

Loke sharply answered, "I saw what he did to her, Master. I don't have any sympathy. And if it was up to me, I would have let him bleed out in that alley the way he let her bleed in his bed. But I am a servant and I am beholden to Lucy."

Makarov opened the safe in his office. "Can I trust you with this, Loke?"

"I won't let Lucy down."

Makarov placed the lacrima in his hand and Loke went to the spiritual world, using Lucy's key to return to her side instantly. She was in the hospital, sitting at Laxus' side.

"Thank you," she whispered as she took it in her hand, unsure of what to do with it.

She took the lacrima and put it in his hand, and it seemed to hum to life, magic, sliding down his arm to his body.

Laxus took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. He looked down and clenched the lacrima for dear life, because he knew if he didn't, he'd probably die. There was no way he could re-merge with it in his current state, but this was workable. Lucy stayed with him all night with the lacrima, and by the time morning came, the stab wound was just a scab.

God, he'd missed dragon-slayer healing.

She was asleep, half-slumped over the hospital bed, her hand still over his. The cut on her stomach was thankfully shallow, so they returned to their apartment.

Lucy went to sleep, and he sat in the living room with his lacrima. There was a part of him that wanted to re-assimilate his magic back into his body, but he didn't want anyone to know about the baby. The biggest risk to their baby was that someone might found out it was his baby, and without the lacrima he really wasn't identifiable—people looking for a bulky dragon slayer didn't notice an average-looking guy with glasses.

In a weird kind of way, they loved one another. It wasn't romantic love, and they had less than no chemistry. Honestly, Laxus hadn't had anything that remotely resembled attraction or arousal since that night and wondered if the incident had left him messed up. But they'd taken care of each other, and he knew when they separated that he would miss her.

He was going to miss feeding her, and fussing over her, and watching over her.

The blonde was likewise fearing their inevitable separation at times.

Yet, it was almost over...by his guess, the pregnancy had only one more month, and then the plan was to stay in Hargeon until Lucy's body lost the 'pregnant' look. Laxus was curious about what her body was going to look like in the end, because she had changed. He never in his life had the guts to say it, but her pregnant butt had been a little bit cute to him.

Then again, Lucy walked in on him brushing his teeth without a shirt once and told him she liked how his abs were a little dough-y and soft looking. He cringed at the idea of a woman referring to his once-perfect body as 'dough-y,' but the person doing it was currently all swollen from pregnancy, so it felt a little okay. The fact he'd got like that eating crepes with her at 2 am in the morning lessened the blow as well.

They appreciated the humanity in one another, but soon they would bring their child into the world and part ways.

Really, Laxus was about to lose two people he was growing to love. He felt like he could have begged her to keep the baby, and she would have, but then he remembered that damn house with its picket fence. He remembered how incredible the Harpers were. He remembered Lucy was seventeen. He remembered she had been raped. He remembered how many times he'd heard her crying in the shower.

Sometimes, he prayed for God to have just a little mercy on them and not make it so hard, but he suspected God didn't have a mind to hear him after all he'd done.

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Special thanks to westerngoddess, katekat2001, and grimnack for reviewing!


	6. Chapter 6

Lucy looked in the mirror and took a deep breath, fingers clenching the edge of the sink in the bathroom of her hospital room. She gritted her teeth and groaned, and she reached out, blindly, and he grabbed her hand. "I look...like shit..." she groaned.

Laxus' prominent eyebrows raised so far they almost disappeared into his hair. "You're about to give birth and that's what you're concerned about?"

A death glare met his eyes and he pursed his lips tentatively.

When the pain passed, she splashed water on her face, which is what she'd come to the bathroom to do in the first place. She dried her face and said, "Let's walk the hallway again. The nurse said it'll make it go by faster. I'm so ready to have this baby."

He really wanted her to lay down and be still, but Lucy was weirdly stir-crazy and hadn't been still at all for the six hours they'd been there. They'd walked all over the hospital, and even outside, but every few minutes, she hunch over and become so weak she couldn't stand, so he stayed at her hip, ready to catch her and hold her when the pain came.

The nurse stopped them and did an exam, at which point they learned Lucy was dilated seven centimeters and was therefore confined to the bed for the duration of the birth. The nurse broke her water to hurry the labor along, and the blonde felt the labor kick into high gear after a few minutes.

"This phase of labor is called transition. It doesn't last long, but the contractions are going to be more powerful," the nurse explained.

Lucy growled through gritted teeth as she clenched the sheets. "I read the book now get out of my vagina! GET IN HERE," she tried to remember Laxus' fake name, but her mind was blank. "YOU."

Laxus came in with the same dumb, surprised look on his face. When they'd discussed all this beforehand, they'd come to the agreement that he'd stay with her during early labor, but not during exams and not during the birth, since she felt strange about him looking at her vagina and he felt it would be strange to do so.

Lucy reached out for him. "Forget everything I said earlier. Don't leave me no matter what," she said in a voice that was suddenly weak and almost a cry. For hours, she'd been enduring the pain after pain, and mentally, it was starting to wear her down.

When the contraction passed, she barely caught her breath when another one came, and she started sobbing. Lucy really didn't want to be a big baby about it, but no description of the pain really did it any justice. One of her hands clenched his, and the other clenched her swollen belly as she writhed. "It hurts. God it hurts," she cried.

"It'll be over soon," he said in an awkward, helpless kind of way. This miracle was not really much of a miracle to him any more than his bloodiest victories were 'miracles.' No, not a miracle; Lucy was bringing this life into the world with her own body, her own strength, and her own pain.

After half an hour, the doctor came in they started to prepare for the baby's imminent arrival.

Lucy felt a pressure unlike anything she had ever experienced. She instinctively knew her baby was about to come, and the burning sensation was the baby's head preparing to make the short but painful journey from her womb to the world. She groaned with another powerful contraction and growled, "I need to push!"

Laxus felt her grip relax when that contraction ended and she panted.

The doctor nodded. "On the next contraction, I want you to give me a big push, okay? You're going to feel a lot of burning, but just keep pushing."

Lucy looked over at him, and he gave her an uneasy twitch of what was almost a grin. "Thank you for staying with me. I-I'm scared to do this alone."

"You're really amazing. You're doing well. It's almost over," he quietly said.

She gave him an uneasy smile. "I wish this situation was different sometimes," she admitted.

"Me too."

Suddenly, her grip on his hand became so tight, he thought the bones were going to snap under the sheer force. Lucy's eyes snapped shut and she started to push with a strained groan that turned into a pained scream as the baby started to move. But she kept at it, because pain or no, her body was running purely on instinct and her instinct was to push like she was trying to force her own soul out.

When she'd gotten pregnant, she'd been in a bed with Laxus, screaming and crying. And all these months later, here she was suffering with him so close. She wasn't sure if she trusted anyone in the world as much as she trusted him, and as weird and messed up as their relationship was, she knew he would always have her back from that point on in their lives.

The baby had forced them to move past everything that happened.

So this was the end of the struggle with and for her body, and as she alternated between screaming and pushing and yes—she wasn't ashamed of it—crying like a little girl, Lucy knew she couldn't hate her body if she could use it to do something as awesome as bring a life into the world.

As the baby crowned, she could hear him in her ear, encouraging her through this, the most painful moment of her life.

And suddenly, the baby slipped from her body and started crying.

The doctor and nurses made a flurry of little actions, wiping the baby off, weighing her, checking her vital signs. And then suddenly, the doctor held out a little pink bundle. "It's a girl. She's healthy and strong. Looks just like her dad!"

Those were probably the most terrifying words anyone had uttered to Laxus.

But she did, and he saw that for himself when Lucy took the bundle gently.

The baby looked so much like him that except for her lighter shade of blonde hair, she was almost identical to his baby pictures.

The chaos from the birth ended not long after the afterbirth came out, and just as they were about to be left alone, the Harpers arrived. When the adopting mother asked to hold the baby, Lucy let her, but her arms felt empty. Laxus saw the pain that marked her face for a split second, and the joy of the other two.

They gave her a name: _Gracie Harper_.

When they took the baby in the waiting room to meet her extended family, Lucy and Laxus were left with the paperwork. Laxus signed first, and she followed, and neither of them said anything. They just sat there in the most uneasy silence because for the past few months, their lives had been about safely bringing their daughter into the world, and now that was over. The baby had a family to go to, and they had lives to get back to.

When the Harpers had to leave because visiting hours were over, Lucy sat and held the baby all night. In the morning at approximately 10:30 am, the Harpers would return and the baby would vanish from their lives forever. Lucy looked down at her little face and knew she might not ever see it again.

Laxus silently watched her every move, but he didn't ask to hold her. He'd never felt her kick in the womb and tended to put a little distance between happy pregnancy things and himself.

So for one night, Laxus watched Lucy be a mom. The baby cried, and she soothed her. The baby was hungry, and Lucy fed her. It was bittersweet to an extent that he could not explain with words.

"How are you feeling?' he finally asked.

Lucy looked up at his tired face. "I'm feeling all right. I guess how you might expect. Sore."

He looked down at the baby. "That's not what I mean."

The blonde looked down at her beautiful daughter. "I know I'm going to sob like my life is over when she leave us. But we did it, Laxus. I'm so glad. I remember when I first got pregnant that I just wanted to get rid of it and in my mind, I was so crazy. I hated you. I hated her. She's alive and she's so healthy and beautiful. She's going to have a good life, Laxus, so it's okay if it hurts."

Time ticked by, and at 9 am, she finally asked. "Laxus, this is the only chance you're ever going to have. You're not going to have anymore kids. Do you want to hold her?"

Laxus nodded. "I've never held a baby. My hands are mostly just for destruction."

Lucy said, "Relax."

His heart was pounding so hard he thought it would explode at any second as he took the tiny little bundle and cradled his daughter. She was so beautiful and so tiny, and she was _his_. But none of that changed anything; she had a real family to love her.

But if there was such a thing as love at first sight, Laxus knew this was it.

The baby started to fuss, and he held her against his chest on instinct. "H-Hey. Don't fuss. This is the only time we'll ever be together," he said, his voice a little ragged.

When he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her, Lucy saw tears roll down his cheeks. He held Gracie and cried until it was almost time for her to leave them. "You'll never know me, but I will always love you, no matter what. Please remember that somehow."

Lucy knew he'd never in his life said 'I love you.' For some reason, it was the straw the broke the camel's back and she just sat there and cried.

Laxus gave the baby back to her when they just had a few minutes left, and she looked down at Gracie.

The baby's mother toyed with her impossibly cute fingers. "I'm your birth mom. Your dad and I can't take care of you the way we wish we could. Because we're young, and a lot of things happened. But we love you more than anything, so we took care of you up until now. You have a new family, and they're going to take care of you. You have a really nice mom and dad, and they're going to love you and teach you. I don't know what they'll tell you about us. If you never know you're adopted, that's okay. But if you find out someday, please don't be upset with us. We didn't give you away because we didn't want you. We gave you to a family because we wanted you to have a better life than we could offer you. And we love you. Always."

They cried, both of them, until 10:30 am, when tears were wiped, faces were washed, and the Harpers came for their little girl.

The paperwork was already done, they really just came and took the baby from Lucy's arms. They said kind things to Lucy and Laxus, thanking them for being so brave and kind to the little baby. The older couple could tell they'd been crying, but as they said it, Laxus and Lucy were 'good kids' and so the bond they had formed with the baby left a wound.

Lucy went to sleep as soon as they were gone, and Laxus went to work.

He was tired and he felt like shit, but what else was he going to do? When he got to the restaurant, it had devolved into chaos during the lunch rush as it usually did if he took a day off. Three people had called in sick, and he threw his mental effort into damage control because it helped him not think about his little girl that he'd never see again.

Short on waitstaff, he picked up a notepad and a tray and went to work. He'd taken a whole table their food when he was a man sitting at Table #3, hidden by a menu.

"Sir, welcome to..." and then he saw the short little legs under the table. "...shit."

Makarov put the menu down. "Laxus."

"Gramps."

"I couldn't find you without your magic before but now you have the lacrima. It's like a homing beacon, but you clearly aren't using it. Are you foolish enough to have it hidden somewhere?"

Laxus narrowed his eyes. "It's inside of my body, but it's magically sealed for the moment, if you really want to know. But I think you didn't come here to talk about that."

"Why the hell is Lucy with you?"

His grandson scribbled on his notepad. "I'll bring you some scotch. What I won't do is talk. I'll do that when I'm damn well ready. That day is not today. Today has been the worst fucking day of my life and I'm here so I don't have to think about it. Fuck you and fuck off."

When he studied Laxus' face, it looked like he, the mighty Laxus, had been crying.

Makarov could really only think of one reason she might have run off to be with Laxus, and looking at his grandson, he believed his suspicion was correct. If they'd been together for months, they'd found some way to deal with their situation and with one another, and out of respect for the fact that his grandson looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown, he accepted that Laxus wasn't going to tell him anything.

"Can you tell me she's okay at least?"

"She's fine. We'll be home in about a month or two. Can you keep everyone out of our hair until then?"

Makarov nodded.

He worked until two in the morning, and having been awake for what felt like an eternity, he went to the beach, thinking Lucy was still resting in the hospital. She'd actually been discharged at noon and had been at home most of the day resting.

Standing there under the moonlight, Laxus put his hand over his chest and unsealed the lacrima he'd hidden inside of his body. It hurt like hell as the lightning coursed through his body again, and his sense sharpened along with his fangs. He could feel the power pulsing through his body, and his weak human lungs coated with scales.

When he finally came home the next morning, she was worried. Even though she wouldn't admit it, she was also hurt that she'd been alone all night.

Lucy saw the mark on his face, and she knew. "Welcome back, Laxus."

"You're all right?"

"I'll be okay. It's strange, having carried Gracie inside of me for so long. And suddenly, I feel empty. It hurts, but we did the right thing," she said.

He nodded in understanding. "That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. When Ann took the baby out of your arms, I wanted to beat her down. It was senseless. I almost felt like they were stealing her."

They didn't say much else, and Lucy spent much of the day resting. In accordance with their plan, he prepared a healthy meal at lunch time and after the food settled, they commenced the gentlest of exercise routines. She stretched her arms and that was about it. She watched him do a thousand pushups and situps, and then he went running for what seemed an eternity.

The blonde applied a tight hip binding because she honestly had wide enough hips before she gave birth. Her breasts were sore and heavy, but her doctor had told her the milk would dry up on its own. She believed she had about twenty pounds of baby weight on her, and as a wizard, being out of shape like that was pretty unacceptable. It would also be a dead giveaway that she'd had a baby.

That night, his dragon slayer hearing allowed him to pick up on her crying in her room. It went on for a while, so he got out of bed and went to her room. He knocked on the door. "Lucy, are you all right?"

"N-No," she sobbed.

He opened the door and she turned on the lamp on her nightstand. "I know it hurts. I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

Lucy was uneasy, but she nodded. "W-Will you hold me until fall asleep? I know we don't touch but I need comfort right now and I don't want to be alone."

Laxus was shocked by this request but he nodded because he really didn't want to bleed alone either.

They were both modest in pajamas, and he went to the other side of her double bed and crawled between the sheets as she turned the light back out. Their limbs fumbled around in an awkward kind of way, and she wiped the tears from her eyes and _laughed_.

The blonde turned the light back on and looked at him in disbelief. "You have no idea how to do this, do you? You've never held a woman in bed before? How does that work? What do you do after you have sex normally?"

"Leave."

It really made sense as soon as she thought about it. There was no creature more aloof than Laxus Dreyar and if sex was not a serious biological drive, she suspected he might never have had it in the first place. He didn't at all appreciate any form of intimacy and tended to avoid it like the plague. That's what made the crush he'd once had on her special.

Laxus laid on his side and Lucy put her back to him, resting her head on his arm. He wasn't really sure what to do with his other hand, but it was uncomfortable to put it anywhere besides across her hip, and she didn't complain when he did. This was her first time being held, and his first time to hold.

When the light went out again, he felt her tears fall on his arm, and an occasional sob shook her. As promised, he held her until she fell asleep.

Lucy cried herself to sleep in his arms like this for two weeks, and because he wanted desperately to set her free, he considered how on a daily basis because he didn't want her to keep crying like that.

On the fourteenth night, he whispered her name and she rolled on her back to look up at him in the dark, barely able to make out anything but his form.

"What?" she asked, tears streaming down her face.

Laxus said, "Someday, after we go home, you're going to meet somebody. I don't really see you with anyone in our guild but there's gonna be somebody. You're fucking gorgeous and you're a really good girl, and this lucky bastard is going to make you feel however you've always wanted to feel. You'll date and probably get married and then you'll make a baby and it won't be like this. You'll be happy and you won't have to say goodbye in the end."

She might not have been able to see him, but he could see her quite clearly with his dragon senses, so he saw her mouth almost turn up to a smile. "You think so?"

"Of course. You'll be in love and you'll have a baby. That's the way it was supposed to be. And I'm so sorry that it all happened like this."

Lucy reached up and touched his face. "I'm not. We had a beautiful baby girl, and even if I miss her like a part of my soul is gone, we did what was right and I'm not sorry. We didn't have a choice when she was conceived, but we had a choice about what we'd do after. I will never regret that choice."

Even though it was he that tried to help her push past her pain, it ended up being her that helped him the most, but that was the real magic of Lucy Heartfilia.

"You're going to be a really good mother when the time comes."

Lucy curled into his chest that night, an embrace that was all but intimate, but it was the last time she needed him. The next night, she slept peacefully, focusing her mind on the future she had to believe in.

For eight weeks after the birth of Gracie, they trained hard together. Fighting, conditioning, running, lifting weights, agility exercises, diet, and by the time Lucy was ready to return home, even if her body had changed, she was in fantastic shape and ready to face whatever the future held for her.

So they went home.

She went to her place, where he'd paid her rent every month.

He went to his place, which was still destroyed from the night he'd hurt her. He cleaned it up, opened his curtains, and prepared to restart his life.

On his third night back home, Makarov appeared at his door. "Are you ready to talk now?"

Laxus nodded. "I want to show you something. I think I've always wanted you to know for a long time, but I didn't know how to tell you. It's like a brick I've been dragging around."

He led his father to the little grave in the woods and they sat on the ground and his grandson told him everything. He told Makarov about having an abortion and how seriously it had hurt him, about how he and Lucy had struggled with the decision, about how he couldn't remember the first three months in Hargeon because of his struggle with alcohol, how they'd eaten and talked all night sometimes, his vasectomy, how she went into labor because he told her a joke and she laughed too hard, how he'd cried like a baby when he held their daughter, how Lucy couldn't sleep unless he held her for two weeks afterward...everything.

And Makarov listened intently as the pieces fell together in his mind. When Laxus was seventeen, Makarov knew he was suffering from grief, but he could never figure out what it was that his grandson was upset about. It was the root of his twisted struggle with his own humanity and probably the cancer at the center of all the rebelliousness that followed.

When Laxus finished, Makarov stood on his lap and embraced him tightly. "Laxus, you're going to be okay. You hear me?"

Laxus closed his eyes and rested his forehead on Makarov's shoulder. "I know."

"I know you're very bruised right now, but time will heal any bruise. Don't forget that as you move forward in your life. You and she are going to be quite all right. All you need is time."

"Being that as it is, there's a request I want to take."

Laxus took a 100-year quest and Lucy didn't see him for three years.

 _ **Please Review!**_

 _ **Katiekat2001, TheDorkyCelestialflame, 12Rayne, Ilustre, and Grimnack for reviewing!**_

AN: I love you all and appreciate all the reviews. So this story is going to have a happy ending, and some things are going to happen. Just stick with me if you can. I know it's awful, but it's a decision that people make sometimes, and it's hurtful and it's complicated.

Rape, unplanned pregnancy, abortion, and adoption are all pretty heavy subjects, just they're on a journey and they're Fairy Tail wizards, so it'll be okay in the end.


	7. Chapter 7

_Dearest Lucy,_

 _By the time you read this, I'll be on my way to a job halfway across the world. It will probably be months or years before I return. I might not return at all._

 _The way it all started was fucked up and I think you're tired of hearing me apologize, but God...we had a baby. Gracie is beautiful like you and she's going to grow up well, and even though it hurts like all fuck, that was the greatest adventure of my life and I'm glad you allowed me to go with you._

 _But we're so tangled up and we're hurt, and because we've been clinging to each other, we will continue to do that and that's not the deal we have. We're supposed to be wizards and you're supposed to love some other fool—someone who won't bruise you._

 _Gramps said that all bruises heal in time, so that's what this is. It's time._

 _Fall in love. Get married. Have a baby._

 _I want all these things to have happened the next time I lay eyes on you._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Laxus_

Three years later, Lucy still had the letter, although she wasn't sure why. She'd cried and called him a coward when she first found it, but there was truth to it. As soon as she started living alone, she started missing him, and she felt sad when she did go around him.

As promised, time had healed a lot of wounds.

The scars that he left on her body on the night their daughter was conceived had faded significantly. She didn't cry about any of it anymore. There would always be a certain lingering sadness in her heart about their daughter, but she knew that Gracie had a wonderful life and that made it bearable.

Lucy was an s-class wizard of Fairy Tail, and she lived in the most excellent way that she knew how.

Since the day Lucy returned, she had gone on many adventures, faced many enemies, experienced many victories, and grown in every way imaginable. And at three years out, she knew what they'd done, while difficult, was right. At twenty, she felt like maybe she could take care of a baby, but her dating life had been quite unsuccessful at best.

She really _tried_. The first one, Greg, was opposite Laxus, and he was emotionally sensitive, but Lucy got tired of him very quick. Then there was the stoic Bryan, but his attitude was disgusting to her. After him came Zach, a professional athlete who was very sweet but very seriously intellectually bankrupt.

It was a random Tuesday in the middle of April when she entered the guild, looked up, and saw _Laxus._ God, she'd missed the sight of him, and she ran up the stairs to greet him while he watched her with an amused expression.

Makarov sensed the way her spirit leapt inside of her when she saw him and shook his head. His grandson seemed happier to see the blonde more than anyone else. Somehow, three years hadn't broken the malformed bond they possessed, so he hoped that the passage of time, if it wouldn't release them from one another, would allow them to care for one another properly.

She ran to stand in front of him, and he gave her a lazy smile as he looked up, head in hand. "Welcome home!"

"Good to be back, Lucy. You're well?" he answered.

The blonde nodded. "I missed you," she confessed.

"What have you been up to?"

Lucy took a seat and they fell into old habits: she sat there and talked his ear off, and he listened. He laughed at her failed attempts at relationships, her adventures as a wizard, the s-class trial, and so forth. While Laxus did not say it, he was really proud that she'd continued to grow strong and had found a path forward.

Laxus had, unsurprisingly, spent most of the time fighting, recovering, fighting more, traveling, and living the life of a great wizard. The life of great wizard usually involved an unreal amount of alcohol abuse, and Lucy looked down to his mug of beer with an unsteady gaze.

"It's okay. I don't have that issue anymore. Besides, kinda hard to get sloshed as a dragon slayer. You don't have to worry about me anymore, you know," he joked.

Lucy nodded. "S-Sorry."

"I'm really not used to anyone giving a damn."

The blonde looked down. "I have something to tell you. About Gracie."

When she uttered the name, she felt his whole everything shift.

Laxus' mouth went absolutely dry. "What happened?"

"It's nothing bad. She's doing really well. The adoption agency sends me pictures every six months. I get them at a postal box under my fake name. So I was wondering...do you want to see them?" she timidly asked.

He thought about it for a long while, his mind suddenly full of noise, but nodded. "I wonder what she looks like now all the time."

"Okay. Come over to my place at seven."

Time had a special way of working so that one forgot the pain but remembered what was good. So when either of them looked back at the time they'd lived together, they realized it was actually a good time in their lives. When Laxus was all by himself during those three years, he missed her miserably, and he cursed under his breath at the idea that she was pulling him right back in.

Laxus brought strawberry crepes, and she invited him in.

Lucy opened the door and found it was nice to welcome him home again. When he'd been working like a maniac at the restaurant during her pregnancy, she'd grown to look forward to when he came home. This was a strange aftershock of an imitation, but their situation so resembled something they once enjoyed.

They ate the crepes first, and Lucy told him all that had happened in the guild.

And then, Lucy brought a photo album she had hidden under her bed and she sat down next to him on her sofa. She handed it to him, and he took it slowly, almost afraid to open it.

When he finally got the nerve, he saw baby pictures on the first page. Gracie was posed all different kinds of ways in cute little fluffy dresses. One the next page, there were pictures of her curled up in her crib with a stuffed toy. Then there were pictures of her standing and walking, and he smiled as he looked over them slowly. There was a stuffed toy in all of the pictures, like she had one toy that was with her at all times.

There were so many memories captured in the photos, and in all of them, Gracie was just smiling with his smile, and Lucy's lips, and his long eyelashes and blue eyes. Her hair was light blonde but fell in curls.

"She's a really happy little girl. It's easy to see," he commented.

Laxus didn't know how Lucy felt about everything, but she seemed at peace. There were times when Laxus felt some bizarre connection he didn't understand to his daughter and wondered if there was maybe a magic link between their blood caused by his dragon blood. He had dreams about a little girl calling his name, all the time, and in his dreams, he was never able to answer her.

Finally, Laxus turned the page and saw a picture of his daughter dressed in a bunny costume, holding her ever-present plush companion in hand.

It was a Laxus plushie.

He flipped back through the photos and realized her whole life so far, she'd dragged a likeness of him with everywhere that she went. To her first haircut, her first visit to the dentist, her first birthday...everywhere.

In one picture, she was surrounded by dolls, and all the boy dolls had a scribble over their right eye. All of them.

"How in the hell does she know my face?"

Lucy answered, "I'm not sure if anyone knows the answer to that."

Laxus wondered if Gracie felt the other side of the weird bond he felt toward her, but then realized it didn't necessarily matter since they'd probably never see one another again.

Their daughter was growing up strong and she seemed so happy that when he came to the end of the pictures, he closed the book and out a sigh of relief.

"This is always going to hurt like hell, isn't it?"

Lucy nodded. "I think so."

The blonde took the photo album and returned it to its hiding place, and when she came back she asked, "Do you trust me?"

"Of course."

The now twenty-year-old woman sat on him them, straddling him so they were face-to-face. His arms hung down at his sides as she put her hands on his face. Lucy kissed him on the lips then, sweetly and gently and affectionately.

Laxus held his breath until she pulled back, and then took several deep, quick breaths. "What are you doing?"

Lucy kissed his forehead, his cheek, and his lips again. "We fell in love, Laxus. It was a broken love, but it was still love. Even if it didn't look or feel like love, it was. It IS. I'm not broken anymore and I can see you're not either. But I'm still in love. I tried being with other people, but I don't want other people. I don't know how many times I've wished I could go back to that apartment and lay in your arms again."

He didn't know how many times he'd wished she'd lay there beside him again either.. She was the only woman he had ever confided in, the only woman he'd ever held, and dammit—the only one he had ever loved. Their path to love had been so rough and it had demanded so many tears and pain, but they had walked it and they had walked it together.

Laxus wrapped his arms around her. "You're brave enough to love me?"

"Are you brave enough to love me back?" she whispered, her lips just above his.

Lucy had long gotten over her fear of his touch. They'd had a baby, and that day they'd sat in the hospital room and cried together over their daughter was far more delicate and intimate than any sex could ever be.

Laxus felt like his body came to life for the first time in years when she pulled her shirt over her head and their lips met again. Her fingers moved to the buttons on his shirt, and a long overdue fever washed over them.

He carried her to the bed and found she had grown up so much in his absence.

Lucy felt no shame as he stripped her because he'd watched her push a baby out. After that, it was a little silly to be self-conscious about him seeing the stretch marks on her hips, little tattletale marks that kept a record that her body had carried a life inside of it.

He kissed her hips, her stomach, her breasts.

This was not the plan; she was supposed to love somebody else.

But she didn't. She loved him, and he had loved her, and no amount of pain, misfortune, or staying apart could change that.

Lucy had forbidden any of her so-called 'boyfriends' to touch her, in part because her spirit had wanted to get back to his arms all along. If he was aloof and strange, she didn't care. Their lives were woven together, and they'd healed and grown up that they could truly love one another.

Laxus made love to her, soft and slow, lips and hands caressing and wandering about her body.

She was resting in his arms when a thought projection suddenly lit the room.

It was wizard saint Jura, the interim leader of the Magic Council. He looked at the sight before him as Laxus sat up naked in the bed and Lucy hid behind him. "I apologize for the interruption. Where are you?"

"Magnolia."

Jura tensed. "You're back. Good. How fast could you get to Hargeon if your life depended on it?"

When he said the word 'Hargeon,' Laxus and Lucy's stomach's both dropped.

Laxus swallowed hard. "Twenty-five minutes in lightning form. What's happening in Hargeon?"

"A monster crawled out of the sea roughly one hour ago. Hargeon is already gone, and casualties are expected to be over ninety percent. It's a dire situation. Please go and fight. The Etherion is warming up right now..."

Lucy appeared from behind him. "You can't fire the Etherion on Hargeon!" she shrieked.

"I'm going," Laxus quickly answered.

He dressed in such a hurry as soon as the thought projection disappeared.

Their daughter was in Hargeon.

XXX

As a city on the coast, Hargeon got a lot of thunderstorms.

The Harpers loved their little girl more than anything in the world, and she was a good baby. She was quiet sometimes, and tended to get a little wild at other times. They already knew she wasn't completely human, but they protected the secret because magically-gifted children often became targets of dark guilds. They believed the birth parents were probably wizards, but even if they were, it didn't change anything.

It is the instinct of a parent to protect a baby at all costs. If she was a little different, maybe it made them love her even more.

The strangest thing about their little blonde darling was her reaction to the storms that frequently blew through the port.

Her adoptive father found her standing in the back yard, watching the lightning that cut across the sunset sky. "Aren't you scared of thunder?"

"It's my friend," she insisted.

"Lightning isn't a person."

"Yes it is. It talks to me."

The pediatrician believed it was a coincidence at first, but there were just a thousand little things that kept happening. Once, she had stuck a fork in an electrical lacrima and wasn't harmed even a little. Once, she ran into the street without looking and lightning had struck and caused a horse to startle and not trample her. Sometimes, Gracie had an inexplicable amount of static electricity.

He picked up his daughter. "What's the lightning telling you now?"

"Something bad." Her hands clenched in his shirt.

Just then, the monster rose out of the ocean. It was eighty feet tall and might be mistaken by a dragon by anyone who had never seen a real dragon. Walking upright, it blew frosted breath and turned most of Hargeon into a frozen wasteland, freezing its citizens in place.

Their picturesque brick house with it's cute white picket fence and tree swing were only two hundred yards from the monster.

Everything turned to ice and just as the cold reached her, she jumped from her father's arms and there was a tiny bolt of lightning that wrapped around her that came from within her little body. The cold magic froze and killed everything else, including Michael Harper. Then, the monster's tail swung and shattered everything it had frozen.

She scrambled, slipping on the ice. Gracie slid off into a drainage ditch, and the monstrous tail sailed over her head. She shivered, having never known such cold before. Terrified, she looked up and found there was nothing. _Nothing_. The world looked completely different.

It breathed fire next, and she cowered in the ditch again as she grasped her Laxus plushie for dear life.

She stayed there, paralyzed by fear, feeling the monster's foot steps and attacks as it went about the city.

By the time Laxus got there, Hargeon was very literally _**gone**_.

There was nothing. He'd never seen anything like it in all of his life.

It looked like the entire town had been broken down to building-block sized pieces and then burned. The smell of burned flesh was so thick on the air the first thing he did when he breathed in the air was throw up.

Looking up, he could see the Satellite Square which showed a countdown.

He had twenty-five minutes and thirty seconds to do whatever he was going to do.

There was a town directly ahead of the creature, and Laxus knew the Etherion blast would kill everyone. It wasn't a small town. The Etherion blast would also kill anyone that had survived in Hargeon.

He could stop that by killing the monster.

When he turned back to Hargeon, he saw little monsters had followed the larger one from the sea and were ravaging what was left of the town.

And he made a choice.

This time, he chose _her._

He took lightning form and tried to pinpoint where the Harpers' house should have been in the rubble. Since he hadn't had his dragon lacrima active the only time he held the baby, he didn't know her scent, but he knew that he refused to let such a terrible thing happen.

It was the tree swing he recognized first, and when he came to the house, he found the Harpers—both dead in the rubble.

Laxus was so scared.

He couldn't sense anything alive for a two hundred yard radius except one little life. There was a prayer on his tongue that he didn't speak, but if he had, he would have pled with God to let him catch this one lucky break and not let their precious daughter be part of this carnage.

One of the little monsters prepared to encroach on the little space where Gracie was curled up.

She cried out.

And lightning struck and became the person she'd seen in her dreams.

Laxus was terrified that he would see someone else when he turned to look, but when he did, there she was. His daughter. His baby. She was so scared and she was shivering and he grabbed her without uttering a word and felt her practically claw at him out of fear and cold. "Gracie! It's okay. You're safe. I promise."

He used his lightning form to take her behind the mountain that framed the skyline. If the Etherion fired, he believed she would probably be safe. She was still shivering, and he wrapped his coat around her. "Look at me."

She did.

"Stay right here. I'll be right back."

Laxus returned to the monster, and looked up. He had eleven minutes to annihilate this creature, so he threw himself at it, mind, soul, and body. In normal fights, he tried to conserve his power, but in this fight, it was better to burn it all up and try to beat the clock, because the Etherion would probably kill thousands of people.

He crushed it in part with brute force, and in part with a piece of electrified iron he drove through it's eye and into its brain. It threw a piece of razorsharp ice through his shoulder, and he hit it with a lightning dragon roar. When it threw him to the ground so hard his whole body hurt and his head swam, he jumped up and drove the iron farther into its brain.

It let out a scream of a roar, and then fell to the ground lifelessly.

The timer on the Satellite Square stopped at forty-five seconds.

The demon had done quite a lot of damage to him in that short amount of time, but he went back to where he'd left Gracie and found her shaking from fear under his coat. He could barely move, but he picked her up and he sat down at the base of a tree.

Gracie clung to him, and he wrapped his arms around her. She felt safe and snapped out of shock into a world of sobs. Laxus held his daughter, her head tucked tucked under her chin, her little fists in his shirt, and her little heart shaken. She cried herself to sleep and he held her as she rested.

He wondered if she was crying because she was scared, or if it was because she missed the parents that adopted her, or if because she'd seen what happened to them. The last thing he wanted was for her to experience tragedy, because that was contrary to everything they had intended.

At some point, he nodded off from his own injuries, and when he awoke, it was to a distinct _sniff sniff_ at his neck. When he opened his eyes, it was just as a tiny hand traced the scar on his eye. "You've known my face, haven't you?"

She nodded.

"Do you know who I am?"

Her eyes were identical to his, and her thick lashes batted as she blinked in determination. "Daddy."

His heart skipped a few beats. "How can you know that?"

The little girl really didn't know. She was a toddler with instincts that transcended what was normal for a human. There were things about the world she could not understand because she was still mostly a baby and things no adult seemed to understand. Just as he'd dreamed she was calling for him, she had dreamed she was calling him.

Gracie's fingers explored him. His face, his hair, and his ears. "Your eyes are like mines."

"Yes they are."

"Your ears are big."

"Yep."

When he smirked, she saw a fang and so she pulled his lip outward and up.

"Your teeth are pointy. Like mines."

Gracie showed him fangs.

"You definitely got that from me."

She picked up one of his callused hands and examined it, reminding him of how he'd done this same thing to her when she had been born. "Your hands are big."

"Mhmm."

When she came to the blood caked to his shoulder, she frowned. "You have an ouchie." She kissed his shoulder quickly. "All better?"

He nodded. "All better."

Laxus felt like he could move around again, so he stood and carried her at his hip. "Gracie, if you feel sad soon, it's okay."

He used lightning form to bring her back to where he had originally departed from.

At Lucy's apartment, the blonde was sitting alone with the newspaper. Nearly everyone in Hargeon had died. It was the worst thing that had happened in Fiore since Alvarez. The newspaper stated very clearly that Laxus had arrived after Hargeon was gone and therefore...

The idea that they'd given their little girl a 'normal' family just so she could be one of the victims of a raging monster made her feel sick to her stomach. So she cried and prayed for the best.

For a split second, everything had been okay.

And then it was snatched out of her hands.

There was a knock on the door. "Wh-Who is it?"

"Laxus."

Her heart raced as she unlatched the door, hoping against hope that he wouldn't come bearing bad news.

When she opened the door, Laxus was cradling their daughter safely in his arms. She was about to scream and grab at her, but because Gracie was asleep, she let him bring her inside. Lucy pulled the covers back and he laid her in the bed.

Lucy tucked their baby in and sat on the edge of the bed. "Is she hurt?"

"She's fine."

"Where are her parents?"

Laxus shook his head once when she looked up.

Lucy looked down. "How terrible..."

He sat next to her on the bed. "I don't want to be the one to talk like a selfish asshole, but I will. I know we didn't intend for any of this to happen, but there's that clause in the paperwork."

"What clause?"

Laxus said, "If the Harpers both die, instead of the baby going to one of their family members, we can take her back if we want. I never wanted anything like that to happen, but it did. I can't undo that. It just is. They're gone and she needs to be loved by somebody. It should be us."

She looked up at him. "Laxus, I'm not giving her up again. Let's raise this baby."

 _ **Please Review!**_

 _ **Special thanks to 12Rayne, Adabs18, and Grimnack for reviewing!**_

AN: This story ate my whole weekend, and I'm okay with that.


	8. Chapter 8

It was often said if you love something and let it go and it comes back to you that it's yours forever. They loved one another, and had separated for years. The pain had been great since the beginning, and the separation left a lingering ache. Yet in one day they had been ripped from where fate had scattered them and brought together.

Lucy opened her eyes and looked down at the little girl sleeping in her arms. She was a bloodhound like her father, and possibly only on scent, had an understanding that they were the ones to whom she was biologically connected. Even in her sleep, Gracie nuzzled at her skin, at her scent. She had a magic connection to her father, but to Lucy, it was physical, basic, and primal. Separation was nothing to the unbreakable bond she formed while carrying Gracie in her womb.

Gracie was cuddled up close, sleeping with her head on Lucy's arm, her back to Laxus, whose muscular arm stretched out above her her so Lucy could rest on it. His free hand was on Lucy's hip, effectively holding both in his embrace as he slept.

The blonde snuggled closer to her daughter and to the man she loved and slipped into the most peaceful sleep of her life.

The girl stirred a couple of hours later and found it hard to sit up with her father's heavy arm across her and her mother's arm around her.

Gracie grabbed his arm and tried to move it, and then growled.

He rumbled back, and her eyes widened at the idea that there was someone else in the whole world that would share this somewhat strange display of frustration with her.

One of his eyes cracked open. "You're not going anywhere," he said.

"Potty..." she rumbled.

Laxus lifted his arm and felt her climb over his body like it was a mountain. When she jumped from his hip to the floor, he knew there was no way the Harpers hadn't known she wasn't a normal kid. "Do you need help?"

"No thanks, I'm three,"she answered, holding up three fingers.

The little blonde went in the bathroom and a couple of minutes later, he heard her flush the toilet and then a _clunk_ when she climbed on top of the counter to wash her hands. She returned to the bed climbed back over him to nestle back between them, wiggling in close.

When morning came, she did what all children do and awoke several hours before her parents truly appreciated, wriggling free from their embrace as she awoke fully charged. Like most children, she took events she did not comprehend—which included everything she'd seen the night before—and simply chose not to think about them. She didn't understand the danger she had been in, the loss she had incurred, or most of what she had seen. She just knew she was okay, and it was morning, and she was happy to be with the one whose scent she carried.

Both of them sat up up, and Grace stood in the bed and hugged her mom first and kissed her, then threw her arms around Laxus' neck and did the same. "Good morning."

Lucy pulled him by the shirt so he leaned over their daughter and kissed his lips. "Good morning."

"Good? This is the most amazing morning of my life and I've only been awake for forty-five seconds."

Laxus cooked breakfast while Lucy bathed the baby girl and dressed her in a tiny little outfit Virgo had provided and fixed her hair. He noticed Lucy wouldn't put her down and carried her literally everywhere, even from one side of the room to the other. Gracie didn't complain even a little and Laxus wondered if they were comfortable like that because Lucy had carried her inside of her body.

"Baby, are you ready to eat?" he asked.

Gracie defiantly put her hands on her hips and pointed up at him. "I'm no baby."

"You are."

"No you are!"

Lucy giggled a little at their child calling her father a baby. "Well if you're not a baby, then what are you?"

Gracie abruptly jumped and crawled on top of the kitchen counter, and then stood on it so she could be closer to his face. "I'm a princess!" she matter-of-factly explained.

He grabbed her and held her against his chest, and she wrapped herself around him like a monkey. "Princess? Huh. It fits. Princess, do you want strawberries with your pancakes?"

The little girl crinkled her nose. "Krawberries are _gross_."

"I suppose you probably had a few too many in the womb," he mumbled in reply.

Her mother wondered what her adoptive parents must have thought. So far, they'd had her for twelve hours and Lucy had seen Gracie jump, climb, growl, and sniff. Yet they had loved her completely and made sure she was happy. She didn't know how to explain to Gracie that they weren't going to be in her life anymore or if a three-year-old had any kind of grasp on death.

Like Laxus, she felt a weird kind of sadness because she was so happy the baby was there with them, but so sad it came at such a high cost. They were good people, and good parents, and she believed they loved the little girl as much as she and Laxus did. It made her sad that Gracie might not remember them as she grew older.

Lucy could understand the nature and beauty of tragedy more now that she'd gotten a little older. It seemed like for every stab of pain that seemed unbearable, her soul had been turned on the path of life. She believed in the future and she had hope, so she held on, and suddenly the memory of pain was so eclipsed by the joy. But even this had been the work of tragedy.

When she went to go wash her hands and face, Laxus looked over at Lucy.

"You busy today?"

"No," she said.

He smirked. "Let's elope."

The blonde tensed, but smiled. "So what? We get married, and we live happily ever after?"

"Exactly."

"H-How?"

Laxus reached across the table for her hand. She turned her hand to hold his. "I won't let you go. So don't let me go either."

"Truth be told, in my wild, crazy dreams, that's my greatest desire—to not have any part of my heart missing."

"Happily ever after it is then."

XXX

 _ **Eight months, and Four Days Later...**_

Lucy and Laxus were picking wrapping paper from all over the house from their daughter's birthday party. There were still probably a hundred balloons in the house, some helium at the ceiling, and some Laxus had blown up on the floor.

Lucy and Gracie had laughed all morning at the sight of him trying to blow up balloons with his balloon-busting dragon lungs. Every time he popped one, the little girl would jump a little and squeal.

Fairy Tail had showered their daughter in gifts to the point there was still a small mountain awaiting the attention of the princess, who was had passed out in her fluffy yellow dress, crown atop her head and teeth blue from her birthday cake. They'd put her to bed an hour before and she was still in a deep sleep.

The guild had been shocked, but kind when they found out about the little girl. Laxus and Lucy told the good parts, and left out all the rest because it no longer had value or meaning.

Nothing about their love story was pretty, but their love was beautiful. They had been tried by fire, and lived to speak of it. Lucy would have argued to anyone who dared to speak about their love to death; their love was powerful because of everything they'd gone through.

Lucy fell for how passionate Laxus was under all the layers of him. She fell for how he looked after her, how he would make love to her half the night and then confide in her and tell her all the things no soul in the world was allowed to know. She fell for the fact he was ticklish and liked to roll around and play in the bed, usually all three of them together engaged in a tickle and Eskimo kiss fight.

She looked at him and found her husband looking at her too. There was more than a little heat in his eyes, and she gave him a mischievous smile. "What?"

"You already know, Lucy."

In the beginning, he was always a little shy about asking for sex, and Lucy suspected it was because of all that had happened. She had to pay close attention, and she usually initiated, but as time wore on and they grew together, he was becoming more expressive. Sometimes, she wanted him to be more aggressive and handle her a little rough, but they had to work toward that.

His wife approached him with a confident twist to her hips. "Tell me what you want."

Laxus put his hands on her hips and pulled her close. "To spend the rest of my life with a beautiful wizard and a princess."

Their lips met in a sweet kiss; they could never take one another or their little girl for granted.

They didn't reflect on the past; they had the future.

He carried her to bed and made love to her until neither of them could move anymore, and then he held her knowing that when he awoke, it would probably be to a flurry of kisses from their adorable little bed intruder.

So as he held her in the dark, he kissed her neck and whispered. "And they all lived happily ever after." 

_**The End!**_

AN: Thanks to everyone for reading and supporting this story. There are a lot of stories where Laxus is forceful/whatever-the-fuck and I wanted to do it a little different, I think. It's heavy. I'm satisfied with it, and I hope all of you are also.


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